In-ear monitors, also referred to as canal phones, are commonly used to listen to both recorded and live music. A typical recorded music application would involve plugging the in-ear monitors into a music player such as a CD player, flash or hard drive based MP3 player, home stereo, or similar device using the monitors' headphone jack. Alternately, the monitors can be wirelessly coupled to the music player. In a typical live music application, an on-stage musician wears the monitors in order to hear his or her own music during a performance. In this case, the monitors are either plugged into a wireless belt pack receiver or directly connected to an audio distribution device such as a mixer or a headphone amplifier.
In-ear monitors are quite small and are normally worn just outside the ear canal. As a result, the acoustic design of the monitor must lend itself to a very compact design utilizing small components. Some monitors are custom fit (i.e., custom molded) while others use a generic “one-size-fits-all” earpiece.
Although both in-ear monitors and headphones offer the user the ability to hear a source in stereo, the source being either recorded or live audio material, in-ear monitors offer significant advantages. First, in-ear monitors are so small that they are practically invisible to people that are at any distance from the user, a distinct advantage to a musician who would like to discretely achieve the benefits of headphones on-stage (e.g., improved gain-before-feedback, minimization/elimination of room/stage acoustic effects, cleaner mix through the minimization of stage noise, etc.). Second, due to their size, in-ear monitors have little, if any, effect on the mobility of the user (e.g., musician, sports enthusiast, etc.). Third, in-ear monitors can more easily block out ambient sounds than a set of headphones, thus allowing them to operate at lower sound pressure levels than typical headphones in the same environment, thereby helping to protect the user's hearing.
Although a variety of in-ear monitors have been designed, a failure of any component within the audio monitor system (e.g., earpiece, cable, diaphragm, etc.) requires the replacement of the complete monitor set. As many in-ear monitor systems are quite expensive, both due to the manufacturing costs of the miniature diaphragms and armatures used therein and the use of custom molded earpieces, replacing a set of in-ear monitors can be prohibitively costly. Accordingly, what is needed in the art is an in-ear monitor system that provides the user with greater capabilities to either replace, or upgrade, specific system components. The present invention provides such an in-ear monitor system.